Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
Should Or Must?: Nature Of The Obligation Of States To Use Trade Instruments For The Advancement Of Environmental, Labour, And Other Human Rights, Stephen J. Powell
Should Or Must?: Nature Of The Obligation Of States To Use Trade Instruments For The Advancement Of Environmental, Labour, And Other Human Rights, Stephen J. Powell
Stephen Joseph Powell
This article examines whether customs, treaties, and historical facts have caused the ethical human rights obligations of economically powerful states to assume a legal quality. The author argues that the legal quality of these obligations may arise from the global harm principle of international law and human rights obligations found in treaties. As a consequence, states may be held accountable for the human rights violations of transnational corporations. Further, the author examines the possibility of pursuing claims under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute for torts committed in violation of international treaties as another avenue for enforcing human rights obligations.
The Place Of Human Rights Law In World Trade Organization Rules, Stephen Joseph Powell
The Place Of Human Rights Law In World Trade Organization Rules, Stephen Joseph Powell
Stephen Joseph Powell
WTO rules routinely are linked to the inability of nations to make meaningful progress in sharpening environmental and other human rights protections, for example, the failure of the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development to usher in any new treaties despite the bright promise of the Rio Earth Summit of the previous decade. The common brief of environmental, medical, and development interest groups is that the market principles of supply and demand, comparative advantage, and non-discrimination on which global trade rules are built have encumbered pursuit by nations of fundamental non-economic objectives that must in any reasoned legal hierarchy …